Ripley present for ‘Christmas’

Actress to topline Vogel play at NYTW

Alice Ripley will topline New York Theater Workshop’s Off Broadway production of “A Civil War Christmas,” joined by a cast that also will include Bob Stillman and De’adre Aziza.

Ripley, who picked up a 2009 Tony for lead perf in “Next to Normal,” will play Mary Todd Lincoln opposite Stillman (“Dirty Blonde”) as Abraham Lincoln in the show. Tina Landau (“Superior Donuts”) helms a cast that also includes Aziza (“Passing Strange”), Karen Kandel and K. Todd Freeman, among others.

The play by Paula Vogel (“How I Learned to Drive”), which preemed at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theater in 2008, follows a number of historical figures and fictional characters on Christmas Eve in 1864. Period carols and music also are a part of the production.